Pediatricians Target GMO Farms as Cause of Increased Birth Defects

As anti-GMO protests pop up

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Birth defects are on the rise in Hawaii, leaving many to wonder if pesticides are to blame – including some pediatricians who are witnessing a spike in birth defects in babies.

In the town of Waimea, pediatrician Carla Nelson has seen at least 9 severe heart malformations in babies in the last five years, 10 times more than the national average. For the past three years, Nelson and other local doctors have found themselves at the center of a controversy over whether a cash crop of GM corn modified to withstand pesticides on four of the six main islands is the cause of an economic boom, or the source of the birth defects and illnesses. [1]

Hawaiians have attempted four times to rein in GMO manufacturers over the past two years, to no avail. On August 9, 10,000 people marched through Honolulu’s Waikiki tourist district, some of them holdings signs reading, “We Deserve the Right to Know: Stop Poisoning Paradise” and “Save Hawaii – Stop GMOs.” [1]

“The turnout and the number of groups marching showed how many people are very frustrated with the situation,” says native Hawaiian activist Walter Ritte of the island of Molokai.

The small town of Waimea is home to about 200 people who work full-time for the four giant chemical companies that grow the GM corn on 12,000 leased acres. All of the crops are exported. Chemical companies Dow, Syngenta, and DuPont spray 17 times more pesticides per acre (primarily herbicides, along with pesticides and fungicides) than on ordinary cornfields on the U.S. mainland, the Center for Food Safety noted in a detailed study of the sector.

The companies are precisely testing the strain’s resistance to herbicides that kill other plants. About a fourth of the chemicals are called Restricted Use Pesticides because they are so harmful. About 18 tons of the pesticides – mostly atrazine, paraquat (both banned in Europe) and chlorpyrifos – were applied in 2012 in Kauai alone. This year, the World Health Organization classified glyphosate, sold as Roundup, as “probably carcinogenic to humans.”

The cornfields lie above Waimea. One section is reddish-brown and perfectly furrowed. Another section is bright green, which is when the corn is actually grown. Every couple of days, both parts of sprayed. Even when the fields have been harvested clean and are awaiting the next crop, they are still sprayed with pesticides to keep anything from growing. That’s because the soil needs to be essentially sterile in order to seed or test crops. Locals often complain of stinging eyes, headaches and vomiting when the wind blows the chemicals in their direction.

“Your eyes and lungs hurt, you feel dizzy and nauseous. It’s awful,” says middle school special education teacher Howard Hurst, who was present at two evacuations. “Here, 10 percent of the students get special-ed services, but the state average is 6.3% percent” he says. “It’s hard to think the pesticides don’t play a role.”

During spraying times, the town’s main hospital – which was run until recently by Dow’s AgroSciences’ former chief lobbyist in Honolulu – is filled with residents physically affected by the pesticides. The facility lies beside the middle school, which are both 1,700 feet from Syngenta fields. The hospital has never studied the effects of the pesticides on its patients.

The chemical companies that grow the corn refuse to disclose which chemicals they use, where or in what amounts. They insist the chemicals are safe, and are backed by local and state politicians.

As for the birth defects spike, “We have not seen any credible source of statistical health information to support the claims,” said Bennette Misalucha, executive director of Hawaii Crop Improvement Association, the chemical companies trade association, in a written statement distributed by a publicist. She declined to be interviewed by The Guardian.

The American Academy of Pediatrics said in a report that it had found “an association between pesticides and adverse birth outcomes, including physical birth defects,” Nelson points out. She says that doctors need to be notified before spraying occurs, noting: “It’s hard to treat a child when you don’t know which chemical he’s been exposed to.” Local schools have been evacuated twice and children sent to the hospital due to pesticide drift.

Nelson is not the only pediatrician to notice a spike in in birth defects in Hawaii. Sidney Johnson, a pediatric surgeon at the Kapiolani Medical Center for Women and Children who oversees all children born in Hawaii with major birth defects and operates on many, says he has noticed that the number of babies born there with their abdominal organs on the outside, a rare condition known as gastroschisis, has increased from three a year in the 1980s to about a dozen now.

Because Hawaii is known for its clean air and water, Johnson and a medical student are working on a study of his hospital records to determine whether the parents of the gastroschisis infants were living near fields that were being sprayed around the time of conception and early pregnancy. He told The Guardian he plans to extend the study to parents of babies suffering from heart defects.

“You kind of wonder why this wasn’t done before,” he says. “Data from other states show there might be a link, and Hawaii might be the best place to prove it.”

Two other physicians are also investigating the potential link, but local residents in Waimea don’t trust the researchers. They’re both members of a state-county commission appointed this year to “determine if there are human harms coming from these pesticides.” The panel of nine part-time volunteers also includes two scientists from the chemical companies and several of their critics. The group won’t be doing any original research – it will merely gather information and make recommendations.

In the last three years, the Joint Fact-Finding Study Group on Genetically Modified Crops and Pesticides on Kauaʻi panel is the only success story angry locals can claim. In 11 other states, companies must disclose what they spray and create buffer zones where crops receive far less chemicals per acre. Prior attempts at legislating chemical companies’ spraying have been watered down so much they became laughable.

In one instance, a group of Maui County residents calling themselves the Shaka Movement launched a ballot initiative that called for a moratorium on all GMO farming until a full environmental impact statement could be completed there. Monsanto and other companies spent $7.2 million on what was reported to be the most expensive political campaign in Hawaii history and lost.

The companies sued in court and a judge ruled that the Maui County initiative was preempted by federal law. The ruling is being appealed.

Post written byJulie Fidler:Julie Fidler is a freelance writer, legal blogger, and the author of Adventures in Holy Matrimony: For Better or the Absolute Worst. She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband and two ridiculously spoiled cats. She occasionally pontificates on her blog.

Fukushima also caused a spike in birth defects in Washington on the north west coast of the US. There were millions of larval stage crabs washed up on the Hawaiian shoreline. These and many other problems not being properly monitored are most likely to be effects caused by the massive plume of radiation and 700+ tons of contaminated water that poured into the pacific and blew across the ocean after the disaster. The knock on effects are still to be seen but the damage done already is horrendous.

If the petrol-chemical companies want to say these things are safe for human consumption, then let them drink a gallon of it in front of us… If we allow companies like Mon-Satano and DUPE-PONT control our food supply we will remain sick starving slaves forever…

That is absurd; we will not remain sick starving slaves forever; just until we are no longer useful and then killed, or until we just die from all the environmental toxins. You should be more like me and stay positive. Keep smiling and at least you will be immune from otherwise deadly radiation. You would not want to die of radiation poisoning or radiation induced cancer before having had a chance to succumb to deadly, non radioactive environmental toxins would you ?

Once more, we find that the GMO and chemical industries are joined at the hip and that neither one has any concern for people’s health. The industry’s CEOs and boards of directors should be prosecuted for deliberately, knowingly poisoning the food supply and deliberately, knowingly making people sick. – If another country did that, we’d bomb the snot out of them. Why are Dow, Syngenta, Monsanto, etc. getting away free?

TheAmericanAcademy of Pediatrics (AAP) recently published a major report entitled
“Pesticide Exposure in Children” that comprehensively reviewed 195 medical
studies on the subject (see [GMO] Roberts and Karr 2012).They found that pesticide exposure
was strongly linked to four types of disease:

1) Childhood cancers, especially leukemia and brain tumors;

2) Neurobehavioral and cognitive deficits, such as reduced IQ and attention
deficit/hyperactivity disorder;

One of the effects of the US’s depleted uranium munitions in Iraq has been babies being born with organs outside the abdomen. Hence, it’s likely that radiation could be culpable for some of Hawaii’s children with birth defects. Although the GMO industry’s chemical biocides are known to cause tumors and cardiovascular problems, I don’t think any study has yet confirmed gastroschisis caused by the biocides. Their known effects, however, are sufficient reason for states to ban them. That they haven’t been banned is due to the industry BUYING local, state, and federal officials.

I was told about a year ago by someone living in Hawaii that their waters have been testing no worse than normal as far as radiation goes. That may have been just that island; I really don’t know. I wish they were doing radiation monitoring of water surrounding all the islands.

I think the reason it’s not being done more is because it’s open water and nobody lays claim to the oceans. What that feels like to me is that they want to pass the buck but there’s nobody to pass it to, so nothing much is getting done in way of monitoring. 🙁

Don’t stop dreaming!! I was there in Oahu about 50 years ago. It was beautiful!! The beaches, jungle, and them Polynesian women. If I had only been at least 5 years older. In 1976 I was suppose to go to Kaneohe Bay with the 1st Marine Brigade, but I was discharged instead. In 1992 a buddy wanted me to go to Kauai to rebuild after a hurricane, but like a dummy I got married instead. I was suppose to go to Maui for 18 months to build a high rise in 2007, but Johnny Law was putting me through the grinder again. The Big Island still isn’t bad. Oahu is to touristy, and Maui is being over run by Monsatan and company. Them rats are spraying chemtrails every where, and messing with the weather, but there are over 130 islands in the chain of islands. They’ve only ruined a few. I’d go in a second still! Besides that, Maui is full of like minded people! People with balls and guts, willing to fight for what’s right!
DON’T STOP DREAMING!!

This video came out a couple weeks ago about Fukushima.
I can tell you a couple more things about Fukushima that I found from Jim Stones site. Jim Stone is an alias for a former NSA whistle blower. One of those reactors were out of commission. Totally down. No fuel rods.
Another thing he pointed out was the BS about those generators that were flooded by the tsunami. They were not needed. The cooling pumps were steam powered. Meaning the hotter the fuel rods would get, the faster the water pumps would pump. That crock of BS about critical mass and the hydrogen bubble were all false.
(Bubbles. Everything that’s wrong has a bubble ever since the 2000 dot com BS! Hmm.. Bubbles? Maybe Bubbles Obama? Bubbles Roberts?)
This was no accident at all. This was intentional. Remember the date? 3/11/11. Illuminati numbers. You already know about Agenda 21. Israel did it, and Stone says how and why.
Nuclear Sabotage at Fukushima.http://www.jimstonefreelance.com/nuclear%20sabotage%20at%20fukushima.pdf

I think a major part of the increased thyroid problem comes from the nuclear agencies dumping barrels of waste into the Pacific ocean during the 80’s, they knew that eventually the salt water would eat through the barrels. With Fukushima they were just given something to blame it on. I was living in Oregon when this happened and it was a very big topic, they had just moved the international water boundaries, which allowed them to not have to go out as far. I’ll do some research later on this subject and see if I can find some information on it. But I was there.
See GMO Roberts (aka girlie man), it’s not always GMO’s.

Notice, the increase in birth defects was first observed five years ago. The Fukushima nightmare begin about five years ago, and Hawaii was one of the first states to be hit by the fallout. But we all know that people in the Aloha state smile a lot, so Hawaiins are immune to radioactive fallout ! I can’t believe you even brought the issue up !

Because sea creature almost disappearing in Pacific Ocean from Fukushima radioactive fallout. Also birth defect on human babies and mutation on plants & animals have skyrocket. Don’t give me that fairy tales about Hawaiians, and because they may contribute their healthy diet with kind of remedies that protect them from radiation.